I've been on a roll reviewing highlighters lately, or at least I feel like I am! Today I'm talking about a new indie brand line of highlighters, produced and sold by a girl I met in one of my favourite Facebook groups: Beauty Squad. Beauty Squad is this place where Dutch speaking makeup lovers unite to fangirl about pretty products and each other's faces, and share info on sales and coupons etcetera. Of course there's some drama once in a while, but most of the time I love how positive, girly and supportive the group is, and I love seeing other women explore their passion for makeup.

Paressa took the plunge to start Visa Lux cosmetics, manufacturing her own highlighters (she mixes the pigments and presses the powders herself!), and she contacted a couple of bloggers in the Beauty Squad group to test her goods and provide her with some nice pics. Let's take a look at Strawberry Milkshake!

I can't hide that beauty reviews are my favourite type of blogposts. I love introducing you to pretty products that I can fully recommend, and today we're looking at one of the most beautiful beauty releases of the recent couple of months: the Anastasia Beverly Hills Moonchild glowkit.

Well hello! I don't know if you have any weekend plans, but you might be in the mood to go see a movie. If you are, and if you're a fan of scifi/superhero/fantasy stuff like I am, I suggest you go see Doctor Strange! As you may have picked up from my social media, I was invited to the Doctor Strange avant première at Comic Con Paris. Since my boyfriend had been looking forward to the movie for at least half a year before the release date, and since I had never been to Paris (seriously!), this sounded like a pretty sweet opportunity. Only caveat: getting up early on Sunday to get to Antwerp on time, gotta catch the Thalys to Paris!

So about a week ago, I discovered my favourite liquid lipsticks to date: the Lime Crime velvetines. I remember reading about these years ago when Lime Crime basically launched one of the very first smudge proof, matte drying liquid lipstick back in 2012, sparking the trend that lasts until today. I also remember all of the negativity surrounding the brand and its founder, Doe Deere. And yes, there is a lot to side eye the brand for.

However, over the next couple of months I developed an obsession with finding the perfect kind of rusty/burnt orange matte lip colour. And then Lime Crime was having a sale and my sister was eyeing another velvetine shade and well, before I knew it I had placed my order for two Pumpkin velvetines and one Squash velvetine for me and my sis, and Salem for my girl Sabina. Lime Crime charges flat rate $10 shipping which includes import duty for Belgian shoppers, yay!

But then something went wrong with my order: somehow my house number did not register correctly and our box of Velvetines was on its way back to the U.S. and we were super frustrated. Cosmetics blue balls is one of the worst kinds, man. However, I contacted Lime Crime's customer's service via their chat function and within minutes, a replacement order was on its way to me. Their shipping is super quick and just 6 days later, I already had my precious Pumpkin velvetine in my hands!

I've already spoiled my opinion on these in the very first line of this post, but it bears repeating: the velvetines we ordered are ah-mazing. Let's take a closer look.

Today is a completely ridiculous, depressing, black day for women and minorities. Yesterday I went to sleep filled with hope and pride, moved by the people queing to put their "I voted" stickers on Susan B. Anthony's grave in a tribute to the suffragettes who paved the way to Hillary. Today, I woke up and quickly checked my facebook feed to see how the US elections had turned out, and there it was: a punch in the gut instead of a fist through the glass ceiling. Honestly, to me it feels like they polled one of the greatest nations in the world about who they hate most: women who don't know their place + minorities, or abusers. And abuser came out on top. On one hand I'm not surprised, and on the other I'm in shock, numb, angry and depressed.

It didn't feel right to write this blogpost without a small note on politics, and I feel that sharing my feelings with as many people as possible lightens the load for all of us. So if you feel like venting or talking or commiserating, send me a mail or a tweet or a comment and we'll talk. And let's all pull strength from Hillary's amazing concession speech:

"This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what's right is worth it. It is, it is worth it. And so we need - we need you to keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives. And to all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me: I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion. Now, I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will — and hopefully sooner than we might think right now. And to all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams."

Now, let's put one foot in front of the other and keep fighting the good fight. I know I'm just getting more combative.

Anyway, I have a job to do! Let's look at my review of the new MAC Liptensity lipsticks.

MAC launched these in October, and the Liptensity lipsticks boast a satin finish, a hyper pigmented, gel-like formula that is supposed to last longer than other satin finish lipsticks (MAC claims wear up to 8 hours), and 24 on trend shades developed in collaboration with Maureen Seaberg. Fun fact: Seaberg is a writer, and a tetrachromat, which means she has the genetic ability to see millions of extra shades of colour us regular people can't distinguish. In short, these are basically superhero designed lipsticks. Cool, right?? I received Double Fudge and Habanero for reviewing purchases, so let's dive in.

Disclaimer: I share my home with three cats, one boyfriend and two teenage boys. Not to be a hater or anything, but that's SIX creatures that add mess and different (pleasant or not) smells to our living areas. I have a pretty sensitive nose, and a busy life with a never ending to do list, and nothing calms my type-a mind like sitting down in a tidy space that smells nice. Preferably with a cat in my lap and some candles burning, and Rihanna's Anti album playing in the background. With the kids getting older and toys taking up less space in our living area, we've managed to put a bit more style into our home.

I'm happy with the way our space looks now, but there's always room for improvement. You can imagine my excitement when I received a HUGE gift box from Rituals, containing six of their home perfume products for different parts of the house. I love Rituals' fragrances (we always buy our deodorant and car perfume there), and their items don't just smell good, they also look great as home accessories. Let me give you a small tour of some corners of our home, and Rituals' home perfumes.

Quickie review today! I've been low key obsessed with Kylie Jenner since before she even got lipfillers (or maybe she just had less lipfillers back then, I honestly can't tell anymore), and I credit her + her team for truly popularizing the whole 90s revival thing going on in fashion and makeup. She has capitalized on her look by launching the Kylie lipkits, and even though I am forever a liquid lipstick sceptic (many of them truly suck), I've been lusting after the lipkits ever since she launched them.

However, ordering stuff from the USA if you live in Europe ain't easy. I mean it is, but it's also expensive in shipping and import duty. Also, spending $29 on a liquid lipstick + lip pencil you haven't even been able to swatch seems pretty cray to me. But then Kylie went and offered $5 flat rate international shipping a couple of weeks ago, and I noticed she also sold some of her liquids as singles (without the pencil) which meant I could order a Kylie liquid and have it shipped over for about €20, which is below the minimum that would be charged for import duty. In the end, I just went for it and ordered Candy K, the shade I first fell in love with.

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from ELF, asking me whether I'd be interested in picking out a couple of products for a review. Obviously, I said yes! As much as I love high end make up and feel like you often do get what you pay for, there is no denying that there are absolute treasures to be found among budget brands if you know what to get. And I'm here to tell you what to get, so let's check it out!